The Secret Ingredient of Business Success

Column by Dan Rodriguez

By Dan Rodriguez

Posted
1/6/12

Ray Kroc, founder of McDonald's Corp., often said, "None of us
is as good as all of us." That axiom has been a success ingredient
of the hamburger giant for over a half century and it can serve
your business, too. What Mr. Kroc was referring to is the synergy
that is created by partnering with others.

The concept of "None of us is as good as all of us" is as
relevant today as are power-partners, meetups and masterminds. In
business, the concept of partnering is extensive and includes the
relationships between business owners, employees, suppliers,
vendors, organizations and customers. The quantity of partnerships
and the quality of those relationships is the secret ingredient
that determines your relevance in the marketplace.

One partnership that is often overlooked is the relationship of
your business and charitable giving. Legendary speaker Zig Zigler
has said, "You can get everything you want in life, if you help
enough other people get what they want." Winston Churchill said,
"You make a living by what you get. You make a life by what you
give."

Small businesses are confronted with the challenge of getting
their message out among the huge volume of information and
advertising. Customers are so inundated with messages in every
conceivable medium that they have become used to a constant barrage
of advertising "noise."

In this economic environment, a small business has to do
something extraordinary to get customers' attention. A method that
many have found to be extremely successful is the practice of being
a good corporate citizen, of volunteering and giving back. A
business derives a multitude of benefits from participating in the
community.

One result many entrepreneurs don't expect is that they improve
the balance in their personal life. How does giving back add
balance to your life? First of all, it breaks the cycle of work
that many ambitious business owners fall into. They find reasons to
keep working, and they slowly become buried in their work, unaware
that they are sacrificing their personal lives in their pursuit of
success.

Volunteering and helping others gets entrepreneurs away from the
business. It provides a new outlook, one in which they fill a
different role. When they assume a new role, they often take the
opportunity to reassess how they fill other roles such as mother,
father, husband, wife, family member.

How do you decide in what way to give back? Look around. Is
there something that's important to you? Is there a societal
problem that's been bothering you? Do you, or a family member,
suffer from a particular disease or condition? You can find an
organization that addresses this very personal part of your life
and volunteer to help them. And, if nobody is already doing it,
consider starting your own campaign.

Another consideration is what you are in a position to do. Your
business provides a valuable service; see how you can use that
advantage to help out. It might be as simple as providing coupons
for your services for an organization to raffle or give away. You
may be able to get your employees to volunteer for activities where
more people are needed.

There are, of course, economic benefits to your business for
volunteering. You become more visible, in a way that leaves a
positive impression on your customers. Some companies pay
thousands, if not millions, of dollars trying to create an image of
their business that you could get for free simply by
volunteering.

The true magic of partnering with an organization is that it
provides the avenue for you to make a HUGE difference in the world
around you. Working with like-minded people with similar goals
multiplies the results of your efforts exponentially. A team of
organized, committed individuals who work toward a common goal is
powerful. Organizations that are formed for a particular purpose
provide a means for caring individuals to work together to multiply
their results in ways that none of them could do alone. The whole
truly is greater than the sum of its parts.

Regardless of the cause that you care to join and support,
remember that being a true partner involves more than simply "doing
your time." You are developing relationships that can be meaningful
to other people as well as to yourself. Those relationships should
be precious to you, and you should care for them accordingly.

Giving back to society is a concept that has been wrapped in
philosophy and moral teachings for a long time. Only in recent
years has it become a standardized part of how business should be
done. Volunteering and giving don't lend themselves to a formula
that you learn in business school, but they can become a part of
your business education if you let them.

The new rule for business is not earning gold; it's conducting
your business by following the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you
would have others do unto you.